Bipolar Disorder The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual...

In 1957, Karl Leonhard a German psychologist coined the term ‘bipolar’ for those patients with depression that also experienced mania. In 1966, Jules Angst and C. Perris independently demonstrated that unipolar depression disorder could be differentiated in terms of clinical presentation, evolution, family history and therapeutic response. Their ideas stood the test of time and became assimilated in both the two main modern systems of classification for the diagnosis of mental disorder: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association and the International Classification of Disease published by the World Health Organization (NCBI, 2006). In 1980, the name bipolar disorder was†¦show more content†¦The ICD-10 requires two discrete mood episodes, at least one of which must be manic. In the DSM-IV a single episode of mania or a single episode of hypomania plus a single major depressive episode would warrant a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (NCBI, 2006). Bipolar disorder is characterized by severe changes in mood, thinking, and behavior, from extreme highs to lows. In its most t classic presentation, mania and depression alternate in distinctive episodes that can last anywhere from a few days to a year or more. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, patients in manic episodes experience elated, expansive, or irritable mood (Criterion A) with at least three of the following (four if the mood is only irritable): inflated self-esteem (grandiosity), decreased need for sleep; racing thoughts or flight of ideas’ rapid or pressured speech; reckless and impulsive behavior enhanced energy increased goal-directed activity and distractibility (Criterion B) (Craighead Craighead, 2013). There are recent theories that suggest that bipolar disorder is a result of the disruption of neurotransmitters in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin and glutamate. The studies suggest that dopamine function is enhanced during mania and diminished during depression (Cousin, Butts, Young, 2009). Studies also suggest that among people without bipolar disorder, dopaminergic agonists